Special senior important part of Southern Boone grad class

Alex Kirmse is team manager, classmate, friend to everyone.

When the Eagles girls soccer team wins a tournament – which has happened often the past two years – it is the team manager who accepts the championship trophy.

That’s team protocol, according to coach Chris Miller, because team manager Alex Kirmse is the senior who is as focused as anyone getting the trophy back to school on Monday morning.

Kirmse, a special needs student, will also be one of 116 Southern Boone High School seniors who will march across the stage and accept their diplomas at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

“I first got to know Alex in summer school in fifth grade,” says senior and class president Katy Andrews. “He has become my best friend.”

The Class of 2017, according to SoBoCo Principal Dale VanDeven, has been exceptional for all four of their years at the high school.

“It’s been THE class,” VanDeven said, “people have talked about how much they admire and respect this class for years. They have a high level of achievement and have been really good at being Southern Boone Eagles. They are good students – so many of the faculty speak highly of them.”

Van Deven says that beyond the Class of 2017s ability to achieve like no other class in recent memory, it is the way they treat each other, including how they accept Alex as one of their own.

“Alex makes our day better,” Andrews says of her classmate. “He makes us see what we value. He makes us always believe we can do better – he’s so positive. He makes us better people.”